--- title: "FAQ" slug: "faq" updated: 2026-08-04T14:09:57Z published: 2026-08-04T14:10:12Z canonical: "docs.plainid.io/faq" --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.plainid.io/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # FAQ ### General Platform Questions **What is the PlainID Platform?** The PlainID Platform combines advanced Authorization capabilities and business-oriented processes to create an end-to-end authorization solution that is extensible, secure, and scalable. It addresses zero trust architecture using a Policy-Based Access Control methodology. **What is the difference between a** Tenant**,** Environment**, and Workspace?** The PlainID Platform uses a three-tier hierarchy: - **Tenant:** Represents your organization's overall account on the Platform. - **Environment:** A logical grouping within the Tenant (e.g., dev/test/prod) for configuration and Policy management. - **Workspace:** A functional space within an Environment where you define Identity, Authorization, or Orchestration logic. **How do I log in to the Platform?** To log in, navigate to `https://{{CustomerDomainName}}.{{region}}.plainid.io/app`, where the domain name and region are specific to your organization. After entering your email and password, you will be prompted to enter a One-Time Password (OTP) generated by your registered authenticator app (such as Google Authenticator or Microsoft Authenticator) to complete the Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) step. ### Components and Features **What is a Policy Authorization Agent (**PAA**)?** The PAA is a core component of PlainID’s distributed authorization architecture. It enables Policy decisions to be made as close as possible to the consuming application, which improves performance, reduces latency, and helps maintain data privacy by keeping sensitive information within your local environment. **What is the Policy Decision Point (**PDP**)?** The PDP is the core Runtime component responsible for evaluating access requests against your configured Policies. It acts as the decision engine, processing identity, resource, and contextual information to determine whether to Permit or Deny an authorization request. **What is the Policy Information Point (**PIP**)?** The PIP is responsible for connecting with various external data sources (such as databases, REST APIs, and user repositories) to retrieve necessary Identity or Asset data to support a Policy decision. **What is the Policy Simulator?** The Policy Simulator is a tool that visually demonstrates runtime calls to calculate and outline responses and policies based on input parameters. It helps validate Policies and find potential issues or gaps before they affect production. **What is the difference between Learn Mode and Manage Mode in Orchestration?** - **Learn Mode:** Automatically synchronizes the vendor-side environment with PlainID, allowing you to discover and translate vendor policies and objects into standard PlainID representations. - **Manage Mode:** Enables you to actively manage and deploy Policies from PlainID directly to the vendor tenant, as well as perform side-by-side comparisons to identify discrepancies. ### Support and Troubleshooting **I don’t see code blocks in the documentation - what do I do?** Ensure that you are not using a third-party dark mode tool. Right-click your page to access the Inspect tool. Right-click the refresh button in your browser and select **Empty Cache and Reload**. **How do I contact support or raise a support ticket?** You can contact [PlainID Support](https://plainid.atlassian.net/servicedesk/customer/portals) at [https://plainid.atlassian.net/servicedesk/customer/portals](https://plainid.atlassian.net/servicedesk/customer/portals) if you need assistance with tasks such as an MFA reset (if you lose access to your authenticator device), configuring specific Connection Adapters, deploying advanced integration patterns, or resolving other issues. Authorization is the step that comes after Authentication. Once users have been identified and verified, Authorization determines what capabilities the user has when using the application's functions and data. A tenant is a PlainID customer. They represent a customer space where they can manage administration capabilities and definitions. They have their own URL - {xxx}.cloud.plainid.io?. Tenants can manage: - How to access the tenant - PlainID - External IDP - Who can access the tenant - PlainID defined - Set in the IDP - Environments *Tenants can hold multiple environments* An environment is a **representation** of a working environment. It enables tenants to build applications, test them, and use them in their production applications. An environment typically maps to the customer infrastructure's relevant environment e.g. Development, Test, Production, etc. In the environment, you can manage: - Environment Settings - Details - Permissions - Authentication Sources - Authentication and Administration API Keys - View Audit Reports - Identity and Authorization Workspaces - Partners/Org Workspaces An identity is a Dynamic Group, including the users or members in that group. Authentication is a user identity verification process that is typically done by logging into the system. The process includes the user inputting their user identity (username, email, phone number, etc.) and authentication code (password, PIN, etc.). It is the step that comes before authorization. The Policy Authorization Agent (PAA) is a hybrid component that is installed in the customer's data center. The PAA consists of the following services: - Hybrid Agent - Policy Decision Point - Policy Information Point - IDP Web-Hook (Optional) - Secret-Manager The PAA should be installed close to where Policy Access Decisions are required, and have access to relevant data sources as needed. The Policy Decision Point (PDP) is a component that "calculates" and provides authorization **decisions** based on the identity requesting access. The decisions are enforced through the Policy Enforcement Point (PEP). The Policy Information Point (PIP) is a component that fetches the attributes required to authorize access policies like identity and asset attributes.